Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Culinary Union Celebrates Las Vegas Strip Becoming 100% Union with Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su
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After UNITE HERE’s Culinary Union and Bartenders Union reached a new contract with the owners of the Venetian late last month, workers and labor leaders are celebrating that every resort on the Las Vegas Strip now officially recognizes the union.
The Culinary Union and the Department of Labor (DOL) acting Labor Secretary Julie Su held an event recognizing this historic victory on Thursday. This first-time union contract covering more than 4,000 of The Venetian Resort team members has been a fight 25 years in the making.
“We are proud to celebrate a new day here at the Venetian,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union. “The fight to unionize the Venetian has been one of the longest and most significant in Culinary Union’s 89-year history. From standing up to anti-union billionaire Sheldon Adelson in 1999, to winning the right at the U.S. Supreme Court to picket and protest on sidewalks in front of Las Vegas casinos, and now securing a historic first contract, workers never gave up….This victory today is also a testament to the leadership of the Biden–Harris administration, whose unwavering commitment to ensure workers can organize and win a union has been a source of great strength.”
“This contract now brings the Las Vegas Strip to a 100% unionized workforce,” said Secretary Su. “When President Biden says the middle-class built America and unions built the middle class, he’s talking about all of you….We want to make sure that a [good] job like that is available to every worker, to every family, in every community all across the country, and you are showing that that is possible here. So thank you for what you have done.”